El Arte de Convivir y la Cortesia Social: Guia Esencial de las Buenas Costumbres = Art of Living Together and Social Courtesy

In the second volume of her ""Art of Living Together"" series, Mexico's image and etiquette diva lays out the rules for behaving graciously at home and in public. Vargas begins with interactions between couples, suggesting that spouses make an effort to spend vacation time alone together, maintain their physical appearances, read a good sex book, and do each other small favors. She then moves on to other family relations (children, in -laws) and to various social interactions, such as at school, at parties, and while traveling. Though some of Vargas's suggestions may strike U.S. readers as old-fashioned women, she writes, should go to bed every evening in pretty nightie most of them are perfectly sensible. For example, she points out that, when sleeping on a plane, it's more courteous to turn your face away from fellow passengers. Vargas leavens the book's many lists with humor and with reprints of her popular newspaper column. One of these reprints argues that spiritual and social values should be held above utilitarian ones; another discusses the emergence of ""the new woman"" who balances family and work. Vargas's bibliography includes works by American, English, and Spanish authors, so her book is surprisingly cosmopolitan for the most part, its advice applies as well to life in the United States as in Mexico. Recommended for how-to collections in libraries and bookstores. [For an interview with Vargas, see p. 17.] Marcela Valdes, ""Cr ticas""